never saw one piece, looked silly and kinda stupid. i watched naruto for way longer than i should havei think i watched until it entered its 500 episodes of filler, phase. then i just jumped to when shippuden started and then quickly lost interest. i watched a few episodes of bleach and quickly stopped because it was basically just naruto in a different setting. a lot of people said dbz and dbz was great...at the time. i saw it when i was like 13-16 and it was my real introduction to anime. if i was watching it today, for the first time, i would probably think its corny, shitty, and monotonous. however, nostalgia goggles are powerful and i still love that show (i actually stopped watching when i was in high school, during the buu saga. after coming home from a party and stumbling into a gt marathon, i decided to finish dragon ball z, and i just finally finished the series the past weekend :D)

deadman91:Wow, shit. I was expecting a big 3 to include something like Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion or something. You know, the ones that are usually held by anime watchers as being sacred, as well as usually being the shows that "got me to start watching 'real' anime".

I did a list if you look at my earlier post where I said that the 3 big critically successful 90's anime's were Trigun, Bebop and NGE, which to me are the bench marks of animes that are hugely successful because they were excellent series (game changers if you will) and not just because they were marketed everywhere *cough* DBZ *cough* and had little substance.

The last time one of those unnecessarily long teenager-focused episodic anime was any good was Ranma 1/2. At least that's my take on it. Anime tends to be best when its writers have a story to tell, tell said story, and end. Preferably within 40 episodes.

Haha, more like which one is the 'least worst'. It's funny how these series have been going on for so long that you were the right age when you first got into them but almost 10 years later it's just hard to stomach.

One of the big problems is they have to cheat a lot and use a number of little tricks to stretch the time out so the anime keeps pace with the manga. I find Bleach more tolerable here since when they need to they just spend 5 minutes doing a recap, annoying but easily skipped over and doesn't hurt the actual pacing. Rather the pacing is hurt by a severe case of Robert Jordan syndrome where the lineup too many fights at once and the story moves at a snail pace. I mean going by the manga there's been what, 3-4 plotlines? They've produced how many hundreds of chapters and that's all they story they've gotten through?

Naruto on the other hand gets rather excessive using flashbacks, needless explanations on every little thing that happens, 'dramatic' closeups in the scene on each character when something big happens, and when multiple things are going down at once recycling footage to let you know 'what's still happening!' over there. It's like yes for the 10th time I understand that Orichmaru still has the Hokage run through with his sword, thanks for taking a minute or two to remind me. The anime treats you like either you're a young child or you're retarded, and it's been a long time but I always felt a little stupider after watching it.

And let's not even get started on DBZ which wrote the book on this topic. I'm curious though what kind of gimmick does One piece use? I gave it a shot but was never really able to get into it.

While I haven't recently watched any of the big three, I do respect One Piece the most. The whole point of the show is supposed to be that it's a wacky adventure involving creative characters who (mostly) happen to be pirates, which from my knowledge the show does quite well. Naruto always felt like there should have been more serious events going on and Bleach just took too much of a dive into the pointlessness and filler-drenched parts of long-running TV shows.

deadman91:Wow, shit. I was expecting a big 3 to include something like Cowboy Bebop or Evangelion or something. You know, the ones that are usually held by anime watchers as being sacred, as well as usually being the shows that "got me to start watching 'real' anime".

I did a list if you look at my earlier post where I said that the 3 big critically successful 90's anime's were Trigun, Bebop and NGE, which to me are the bench marks of animes that are hugely successful because they were excellent series (game changers if you will) and not just because they were marketed everywhere *cough* DBZ *cough* and had little substance.

Ah, good. As long as such a list and discussion have been on this site recently then all is right with the world.

Indeed. DBZ might have the worst pacing next to an asthmatic ant doing heavy shopping, but it also has some of the funniest filler to ever grace television screens.

Where in Bleach can you find a green alien taking Driver's Ed?

Good times... Yeah while the fillers were often boring to say the least (luckily DBZ Kai is fixing that) some of it was quite funny. Personally i was particularly fond of the "Hercule Satan" fillers.

Anyway, i have watched none of these "Big 3's", maybe i'm just getting too old and missed the new mainstream animes. (Though i would like to note that unlike DBZ or other old school animes i can't seem to have noticed any of these on TV, so even if they're the big ones nowadays they seem to be much smaller than the old big ones)

out of these three, I dislike Bleach, am unfamiliar with One Piece, and think Naruto is decent (has it's great moments, but so much filler)

so Naruto I guess

shrekfan246:I didn't realize there was a Big 3... in fact, I always thought Pokemon and Dragonball Z were more popular than those among kids/teenagers... oh god, has it really been that long since those were big shows?

The only Anime I've ever really watched has been Pokemon, Dragonball, Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, so I suppose my opinion doesn't mean much in this thread. Also, people who actually watch Anime scoff at me because I've only ever seen terrible ones.

The reason DBZ (and others) aren't in the poll are because these are the three largest series right now (considering DragonBall concluded a LONG time ago).

OT: Naruto. But it has gone so far downhill that its sad. Pein Invasion Arc is when it hit rock bottom, then it started to dig. But Bleach went off the rails... twice somehow... and One Piece has so many freaking chapters that having any kind of story is pointless at this point. I still read Bleach and Naruto though.

The reason DBZ (and others) aren't in the poll are because these are the three largest series right now (considering DragonBall concluded a LONG time ago).

OT: Naruto. But it has gone so far downhill that its sad. Pein Invasion Arc is when it hit rock bottom, then it started to dig. But Bleach went off the rails... twice somehow... and One Piece has so many freaking chapters that having any kind of story is pointless at this point. I still read Bleach and Naruto though.

Yeah, that's why I said "Has it really been that long since those were big shows?"

I'm out of touch with what's been popular over the last decade, apparently.

RandV80: I'm curious though what kind of gimmick does One piece use? I gave it a shot but was never really able to get into it.

Well the way that One Piece does it is that it more or less follows a 1 manga chapter to 1 episode format, or near enough anyway. The story arcs can drag out but nearly everything you'll see in an episode is in the corresponding manga chapter so you don't just have a lot of stuff added in to pad out the anime, that's not to say that there isn't filler episodes but they're integrated into the main story in a way that you wouldn't actually know they're fillers unless you read the manga.

xplosive59:I thought the modern big 3 were Death Note, Code Geass and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Out of those 3 I would pick FMA: B (although my avatar is CG) as it is the most conisistantly epic!

I don't watch any of those you posted though.

Edit: Ever realise how anime seems to come in 3's? There is always 3 massive animes at one time, examples:

Bleach was my favorite out of the three. It started really going down in quality after the Soul Society arc though. The Arrancar Arc was good, the Hueco Mundo arc was okay, but I started losing interest real quick when they started killing off the best villains(Did Grimmjow die or did he just fall into a plot hole?) and the good guys would never die regardless of how grievous their injuries were.

The sense of urgency and suspenseful feeling of "anything could happen" that made the Soul Society arc so great just wasn't there anymore. After a while I stopped watching the anime because of fillers, then stopped reading the manga because it got boring.

xplosive59:I thought the modern big 3 were Death Note, Code Geass and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Out of those 3 I would pick FMA: B (although my avatar is CG) as it is the most conisistantly epic!

I don't watch any of those you posted though.

Edit: Ever realise how anime seems to come in 3's? There is always 3 massive animes at one time, examples:

sure, if you ignore all of the other ones. Critically successful seems to mean "popular series that I like and are probably good" in your definition.

Nope, I cant stand Death Note and there are far better animes than the ones posted. For the 90's ones, these are the animes that have been given a stupid ammount of praise and were big in the west in the late 90's while the examples from the 00's are entry level anime which are usually recommended to newcommers to the medium for they are show how anime can be at it's best while still being very accessable. I think now that I should of put critically successful entry level anime instead of just critically successful.

I don't really watch any of the big 3. It's not because I consider myself to be above them, it's just that it would take a lot of effort and time to watch them all. I prefer animes in the span of 26 episodes. Once you get into the hundreds, shows usually start to run out of steam and the quality of animation and storytelling starts to gradually diminish.

Tank207:Bleach was my favorite out of the three. It started really going down in quality after the Soul Society arc though. The Arrancar Arc was good, the Hueco Mundo arc was okay, but I started losing interest real quick when they started killing off the best villains(Did Grimmjow die or did he just fall into a plot hole?) and the good guys would never die regardless of how grievous their injuries were.

The sense of urgency and suspenseful feeling of "anything could happen" that made the Soul Society arc so great just wasn't there anymore. After a while I stopped watching the anime because of fillers, then stopped reading the manga because it got boring.

Zaraki Kenpachi is still awesome though.

The manga has taken an interesting turn recently, plot holes are being filled, more plot holes are being created and Soul Society has been royally fucked up. Like, "good guys dying for a change" kind of fucked up.

I definetly think Bleach. I have seen up to about 100 of Naruto and only about 5 episodes of One Piece though, so grain of salt. For all peoples complaints about these shows I still think they are very good.

Well, I usually don't watch anything, but I got bored and someone on here mentioned One Piece, and I remembered seeing a few episodes ages ago back on 4Kids, so I found the non-4kid one and have been watching it. It's a fairly fun show, crazy pirates fighting other crazy pirates. It appears to be just one big wacky adventure where some of the craziest things happen.

Never really got into One Piece, but I read some Naruto and Bleach.Stopped reading Naruto around when it did that "everyone is deaaaaaaaaaaaa-NOT REALLY I DON'T WANT TO TAKE ANY RISKS" bullshit.Also got sick of Bleach's "wwwwuuuh I need to use my secret power to defeat such and such and ooooh no he's got his own secr-whoa look at my new secret power"

I'll never watch any of the "Big 3". They have way too many episodes (probably mostly filler) and should've ended a long time ago. I prefer anime that's only around 2-3 seasons long, it keeps everything flowing nicely:-)

I used to like Bleach, but then I took an arro- *is slapped* I mean, but it started going downhill after the first major story arc where they rescue Rukia from being executed. I gave up on Naruto after about three episodes when I realized that, yes, the main character really is that much of an asshat. As for Once Piece, I think I'll just stick to purpleeyeswtf's version.

I only ever got 30-ish episodes into One Piece. I liked it, but the site I was using stopped hosting it for copyright reasons.

Naruto is... bad. I haven't seen Shippuden, but I watched all of the first series... with the English dub... without skipping the filler... It was bad and the plot basically went nowhere the whole time.

I loveBleach. I think the world Kubo created is just so cool, and the fights were awesome, and for what it was, the plot was/is (I haven't started following up with the manga, since the anime ended) pretty good, too. So it gets my vote.

OP is an American...? I know One Piece was bigger outside of the US so I figured that's why it was listed but the lack of Dragon Ball Z just confused me...then I read the other comments and yeah, DBZ isn't ended but I thought Naruto and One Piece also ended. Shows what I know. Out of the three listed, I think Bleach by virtue of me being the most familiar with it. I hate Naruto and One Piece was apparently butchered when it was localized. Bleach got tedious for me after about issue 21 or whenever it was that I stopped reading it. Either way I made it farther in Bleach than I have with the other two (although I can't wait to import my copy of Pirate Warriors or whatever the One Piece Dynasty Warriors game is called)

When I was a lot younger, I watched all three religiously. Once I hit 14 or 15 I kind of just stopped watching anime altogether, though. I recently watched FMA: Brotherhood (mainly because I still have fond memories of the old one now, whereas I can't seem to remember anything I liked about the big three animes) and liked it, but I'm not really sure if any anime would interest me nowadays.

I know I risk sounding a bit like a dick here, but I think I've grown up beyond animes like Naruto and Bleach. I'm less willing to suspend my disbelief and put up with bullshit plot hooks and cliffhangers as well as filler. Plus, they're not exactly the best written shows going. FMA: Brotherhood feels like a more refined anime, with good writing and a welcomed lack of cliffhangers. And it didn't drag on for 800 episodes or whatever Naruto or Bleach is at now, it was pretty short come to think of it.

shrekfan246:I didn't realize there was a Big 3... in fact, I always thought Pokemon and Dragonball Z were more popular than those among kids/teenagers... oh god, has it really been that long since those were big shows?

The only Anime I've ever really watched has been Pokemon, Dragonball, Digimon, and Yu-Gi-Oh, so I suppose my opinion doesn't mean much in this thread. Also, people who actually watch Anime scoff at me because I've only ever seen terrible ones.